New Air-conditioning
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During the week 10-14 December new air-conditioning machinery and associated pipework are being installed in the Museum and in the meeting/exhibition room next door.
As a precaution against the dust that could have accumulated in the roof space being released when suspended ceiling tiles are removed, as much as practical of...
Read MoreUnclaimed World War 1 Medallions
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After the end of the Great War, in July 1919, Bradford on Avon Urban District Council arranged for medallions to be given to each person from the town who had served in the armed forces. Each was inscribed with the person’s name.
However, a couple of years ago, the present Town Council discovered a box which contained...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: Medieval
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Although whole buildings of the middle ages stand in and around Bradford, so far very little from the medieval period has come to Bradford on Avon Museum. Less than from the New Stone Age (Neolithic ) and much less than from the Roman Period!
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This piece of stone is a part...
Read MoreMuseum Collection: Transport
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Click on the thumbnail pictures for a bigger view
A copper alloy button with the intertwined letters GWR. It would have dropped off the uniform of a Great Western Railway employee and was found in Sandy Leaze, which was a field that was built over in the 1960s.
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The Museum Collection: the Wadman Trophy
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The rose bowl trophy was awarded in 1908 to William James Wadman (1887-1954) of Stowford, Wingfield for shooting. He was a member of the Rood Ashton-Malmesbury troop of the Wiltshire Yeomanry.
It was presented to him by Sir Vincent and Lady Caillard – Sir Vincent Henry Penalver Caillard (1856-1930) and his wife, Eliza Frances...
Read MoreThe Memorial Baths, Bridge Street
As a memorial for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, it was decided to erect a building containing a swimming pool and baths, for the many people who then did not have one in their own homes. The site was a shabby area of ramshackle workshops in Bridge Street, next to the Town Bridge- so it would be an exercise in both tidying up an eyesore and providing a new facility. The...
Read MoreAvoncliff Red Cross Hospital
A range of buildings on the Westwood side of Avoncliff, which had been housing for workers at the woollen cloth mill and then the Bradford Poor Law Union Workhouse, became in 1917 a Red Cross Hospital for treating soldiers who were recuperating from wounds from fighting in the Great War. The hospital functioned until 1923, when it was sold and became the Old Court...
Read MorePeople: Elizabeth Tackle (1808-1877)
The Bradford artist Elizabeth Ann Hamlyn was born in Bandon, near Cork in Ireland, the daughter of an army officer who was serving there. Her father moved the family to Holt in 1817 and he became the minister of the Independent Chapel. She married the Rev James Tackle in 1832, living in the manse attached to the Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel in Huntingdon Street in Bearfield,...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: Horse-riding
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The cultivation of horses and riding are expanding in this, as in other areas of the country. Bradford on Avon Museum holds items relating to the Save the Children Fund Gymkhana, which was an annual fixture between 1976 and 1990, raising funds for charity. For most of the time it was held in a field belonging to John...
Read MoreOld Photographs: Fire Brigade
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Click on the thumbnail pictures for a larger view
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Bradford’s volunteer firemen turned out for the opening of Bradford Waterworks in 1883, formed part of a procession and demonstrated that the new water supply had enough pressure for them to direct jets from their hoses over...
Read MoreOld Photographs: Church Street
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Click on the thumbnail pictures for a larger view
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Bradford commemorated the death of King Edward VII in 1910 with a parade and a service at the parish church. On the right, the buildings of Church Street Mill are unoccupied and windows have been smashed. They were still at...
Read MoreOld Photographs: Military & Wartime
. Wiltshire Volunteers
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K Company cyclists of Wiltshire Volunteers, photographed in 1901 outside Duckmead House, Monkton Farleigh, the home of their Captain, Erlysman Pinckney.
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The Museum Collection: Public Houses & Publicans
Inn tokens or checks
Tokens came into use in this area in the 1840s, when there was not much small change about. Workers would purchase the tokens when they were paid and use them to buy beer at a later time.
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A brass token, worth three pence, that was issued by Thomas Holloway at the Lamb Inn, Bradford. The...
Read MoreHolt Junction Station
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The original plan of the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1830 was for branches to Bradford, Trowbridge and Devizes, but these were not built. It was left to the Wiltshire, Somerset & Weymouth Railway (WSWR) to build a line from Chippenham to Westbury and beyond, passing through Holt in 1848. Again, promised branches to...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: Holt
Bradford on Avon Museum now holds the collection of objects relating to the parish of Holt that was assembled by the late Pam Gooding. Below are photographs of a selection of them.
Click on the images for a larger view.
Read MoreOld Photographs: Bowls
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Bradford Rowing Club laid out a two-rink bowling green next to their boathouse for non-rowing members in 1912. The green was enlarged to three, then to four rinks. In 1957 the Rowing Club Bowls Section became Bradford on Avon Bowling Club and in 1966 moved to the new green that was provided on the other side of the river by Wiltshire County...
Read MoreOld Photographs: Cricket
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Group photographs of cricket teams seem to be less common than those of football teams.
. A group photograph that was taken on the occasion of a match between the Bradford rubber works cricket team and a visiting team from the London office of the George Spencer Rubber Company, probably...
Read MoreMuseum Collection: Neolithic Flint Implements
The Neolithic Period (New Stone Age) was marked by the first introduction of farming, both in growing crops and keeping domesticated animals. Large areas of the country were cleared of ancient woodland to make fields, but hunting and gathering still went on. Metal tools were not yet available and the Neolithic people made tools from flint and polished stone axes were traded...
Read MoreOld Photographs: The Rubber Works
Views of the works of the Spencer Moulton rubber company’s Kingston Mills, mostly from just after the First World War.
Click on the thumbnail pictures for a bigger view.
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Museum Publication: The Christopher Pharmacy
The first of Bradford on Avon Museum’s booklets has now been published, in conjunction with publishers Bed and Bolster.
The all-colour booklet details the history of the chemist shop that now forms the centrepiece of the Museum and gives an idea of how its business was carried out.
The booklet sells at £2 and is available in the Museum and from the Tourist Information...
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